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Use of tuberculin skin test for assessment of immune recovery among previously malnourished children in Ethiopia

Authors :
Kate Sadler
Paluku Bahwere
Tsinuel Girma
Yesufe Getu
Yilak Getnet
Philip T. James
Alemseged Abdissa
Source :
BMC Research Notes, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2017), BMC research notes, 10 (1, BMC Research Notes
Publication Year :
2017
Publisher :
BMC, 2017.

Abstract

Objective: To compare levels of immunity in children recovering from severe acute malnutrition (cases) against those of community controls (controls). Results: At baseline children recovering from severe acute malnutrition had lower, mid upper arm circumference (122 mm for cases and 135 mm for controls; p < 0.001), weight-for-height Z-score (- 1.0 for cases and - 0.5 for controls; p < 0.001), weight-for-age Z-score (- 2.8 for cases and - 1.1 for controls; p < 0.001) and height/length-for-age Z-score (- 3.6 for cases and - 1.4 for controls; p < 0.001), than controls. Age and gender matched community controls. At baseline, prevalence of a positive tuberculin skin test, assessed by cutaneous delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction skin test, was very low in both cases (3/93 = 3.2%) and controls (2/94 = 2.1%) and did not significantly increase at 6 months follow up (6/86 = 7.0% in cases and 3/84 = 3.4% in controls). The incidences of common childhood morbidities, namely fever, diarrhoea and cough, were 1.7-1.8 times higher among cases than controls. In conclusion, these results show that tuberculin skin test does not enable any conclusive statements regarding the immune status of patients following treatment for severe acute malnutrition. The increased incidence of infection in cases compared to controls suggests persistence of lower resistance to infection even after anthropometric recovery is achieved.<br />SCOPUS: ar.j<br />info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
17560500
Volume :
10
Issue :
1
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
BMC Research Notes
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....d882d34b33b00da0af650fa81fd69b43
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-017-2909-x